Gone until August 8th

Heading to Dusseldorf, London, and Paris.

Those of you who know me would know that I have a big bias against the French.  Well, actually, more so just the language.  Well, actually, more so just the fact that even after taking social studies in high school, I still don’t understand why I am forced to have to read and hear French in Canada.

And so, we’ll see if Paris will really impress me so much that I’d unclench my fists.

I do have one regret before I leave for this trip though……the fact that I’m gonna miss Conor Oberst’s gig here in town!!

Oh well.

See ya all soon.

On Moobs

Serving alongside academics at church, especially one who is a grad student in Geography, I’ve gotten to learn a lot more about my own upbringing. I realize that while I had always considered myself a Hong Konger, I simply cannot ignore the fact that I am also an immigrant who spent most of my growing up years here in Vancouver, BC.

There’s this inner struggle I have in figuring out who I am exactly.

And so, just to better illustrate this whole idea, I am going to talk about my moobs, otherwise referred to as man-boobs.

You see, there are days when I would put on one of my favourite shirts, only to have the day ruined because I noticed that my moobs were totally sticking out like a hungry fox in a pen of innocent sheeps. During those days, I would vow to myself that I will do everything within my power to lose them moobs.  Afterall, as even Jason Bateman said on either Jay Leno or Conan, who would want bigger boobs than their wife?

‘I will work hard even if it means committing social suicide’, I would convince myself inside my head.

All this above is a very crisp example of the Chinese in me.

Now, on another day under the exact same circumstances, the same thing could happen to me but I would react to it in polar opposites. I might look into the mirror, see my moobs, and then just go ‘that’s a guy thing, I should be proud of who I am, and these moobs define me’.

‘Why should I work hard to lose them? I am not living my life to impress other people!’, I would also tell myself.

There, my friend, is the Western side of me coming out of the closet.

And so, how do I resolve this, you might ask.

It’s quite simple: the same way I would answer back to fat apologists (there seems to be more and more of them in the world nowadays).

Fat apologists being folks who claim that being fat is simply being who they are; they would claim that as long as they are healthy they are okay; they would further ask rhetorical questions like ‘is it really such a good thing to be skinny like that girl who was on that TV show with Paris Hilton (Nicole Ricci?) and become anorexic and become drug addicts?’

Blah blah blah.

And to this, my Chinese side would come out and would always win. It would simply ask me and my Western side a very simple question: what is easier, being fat or being skinny?

To simply say the moobs are part of who I am so I can just sit in my armchair and enjoy life is to say that we don’t need to make compromises in life, that we don’t need to love others as that would require sacrifices and putting yourself at risk of facing suffering. Very easy. And has there ever been good things given to people who take the easy way out of life historically? Not that I know of.

As the apostle Paul tells us in the book of Romans, hardwork, such as working out to lose your moobs, requires suffering. And suffering produces character. And character is what really defines us.

So get with the program.

Keep fit & have fun.

Make compromises. Suffer. That’s life.

Note: with all this said and done, I still have my moobs. Sigh.

Prejudice

This is somewhat of an afterthought to my friend Sarah Joy Wong’s post (I realize I can’t just call her “Sarah”, and “Sarah Joy” sounds weird without the “Wong”……), found here: http://sajoy.wordpress.com/2008/07/20/broken-telephone/

To give you a good understanding of what happened, I have to give you an overview of the geography of my workplace.

As a receptionist, when I see a client walk through the front-door, there are basically three possible scenarios:

1) They are coming in for a group class, and so I would have to check them into their class

2) They are coming in for a private lesson, to which I do absolutely nothing

3) They are coming in for open floor practice, which means they would have to leave $4 at the front desk

And so, this Chinese couple came in a couple of nights ago.  They had previously already made a bad impression on me, as they would always practice till very late (they do have a good work ethic, I suppose) which meant that I would always have to kick them out, so to speak.  And they would speak to me in Mandarin, which is a language I am not very fluent in.

Anyways, so they came in the other night, and rushed right through into the ballroom without acknowledging me at all.  And guess what my natural reaction was?

‘These guys are so cheap, they aren’t even gonna pay their $8 bucks!’

And just as I was about to chase after them to get them to pay up, I found out that they were actually there for a private lesson.

There’s my prejudice.

There’s my racist attitude towards the Chinese folks.

But here’s a life application question: several acquaintances have told me over time that I should simply pretend I don’t know Chinese when customers speak to me in the language, their reasoning being that if these customers know I spoke their language, they would take every opportunity to abuse their privileges and treat me harshly, because I would’ve now become a “comrade” to them.

While I know exactly what these acquaintances mean, isn’t it a mean thing to do though?

It’s almost as if they are telling me to put a handicap on these customers, by speaking in a foreign language that they are not very fluent in.

Plus, it’d be a big white lie to pretend that I don’t know Chinese.  In fact, it’s beyond a white lie.  It’s a real lie.

And if I am going to be providing legendary customer service, I better learn to deal with these difficult people regardless.

And lastly, I think I had my share of being treated poorly and handicapped when I visited Rome with my family a couple of summers ago.  The fact that no one around you spoke a language you understood was very frightening, to say the least.

A little tip for my photography friends

Wow, now I understand the importance of flash in photography!

Photo with Flash

LOL.

The Dark Knight: no spoilers

Well I didn’t go to watch the midnight showing of the Dark Knight only to go straight to bed afterwards and not blog about it.

Currently listening to the Smashing Pumpkins to savour that darkish feeling a bit more.

Tonight could’ve been a right mess.  Knowing that I was going to go to this midnight showing, I still decided to cover a coworker’s shift, which meant I was at work until about 11:15PM, which meant I had to rush over to Metrotown.  And then somehow one of the 2 lanes on Knight bridge was actually being paved, so traffic was totally jammed up.  Anyways long story short I got there in time.

Thanks to Paulman, and Macrina for making the ballroom such a nice, clean place.

So, without telling you anything much about the movie itself, I’d have to say – it was worth the wait.

You see, a few of us on HP’07 last summer watched Batman Begins on Paulman’s laptop and immediately after that, I had “promised” Paulman that we would see the sequel together.  Here it is, a year later.  And totally worth the wait.

You see, there are 2 types of films that do it for me (and everyone else).  Every film has its share of conflicts, and what really differentiates them is how the whole thing goes about solving them.

In the first category, you have films that develop so rapidly and smoothly (bar the little predictable plot twists here and there) that whatever conflicts in them are ripped apart so crisply that you leave feeling all happy and proud.

But too much of a good thing isn’t a good thing at all.  That’s why all of us have grown so tired of these superhero films of late – everyone of them falling into this same category.  Transformers, Spiderman 3, Iron Man, etc.

And then comes The Dark Knight, where the conflicts grow messier and messier until that one moment……where nothing really gets resolved.

It’s hard not to see parallels with the Christian faith with the themes in this film.

As Paulman described it, it was like 2 Co 5:21 – For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin.

Life is messy.  I like this film.

Go watch it.

The Old Lady’s midfield pairing for 08/09

Very happily, I have just purchased tickets to see Arsenal vs. Juventus at Emirates Stadium (or, as the proper Gooners refer to it: Ashburton Grove) in a pre-season friendly match.

And you must say Juve is getting on quite well with the times, just look at their central midfield pairing for this coming season:

Mohamed Sissoko and Christian Poulsen. That’s Mohamed & Christian together side by side

Add to that, up front there’s the star in David Trezeguet for a little bit of Star of David Jewish action and man, that’s really a team for everyone eh?

LOL.

In other news, I have a confession to make: I was leading worship at Sunday service this past week and as I began to really get into it, I looked at the congregation and spotted a few white folks (they weren’t just your regular white folks, they were English as well)! Consequently, I played the piano with a bit more thought, sang with a bit more passion, and so had a real good time.

It’s not even funny.

Family

It might be because I just finished all 3 seasons of one of the funniest TV shows – Arrested Development – a show about a dysfunctional family.  Or it might be because I am listening to the Great Lake Swimmers – one of the most depressing bands to listen to.

But I have been thinking…

Since young, we were all taught that the most important thing is our family.  Family comes first.  If everything should fail, your family will still always be around for you.

But then you look around… and you find that all the crazy people in this world are that crazy because of their upbringing.  That serial killer you see in the news is probably that way because he got beaten up by his dad more times than he has had hot meals.

That 4 year old kid at the mall who says the F word is probably that way because of his mom who swears every other sentence, you thought.

I look back and realize that the most harsh conversations I have ever had were all with my family.

So how does this all work?

I think it’s definitely a double-edged sword.

The joy your family brings cannot be brought on by anything else.  I suppose I’ll just have to cling onto that.

It’s about time!

Well if you are a subscriber and a regular customer of my blog you would have noticed that the bit of my brain in charge of blogging has died down a bit in recent months. Indeed it has. But I think through the cross it has been given life and I’m back for more!

Actually, I don’t have much to say. No, I think I do. Sidenote: ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT is the funniest TV show I have ever seen. My gosh!

My life is definitely shaping up a bit. You see, during my university years I constantly had about a dozen roles to fill: brother, son, grandson, friend, Campus for Christ leader, worship leader, youth group leader, Awana leader, part-time receptionist, football player, etc.

Now that school is over, along with many things that come with it, I have been “freed up”, so to speak, and have the space to really follow my heart.

You see, during my school years I lived in my little fantasy world. I enjoyed the titles I was given. But I never really fulfilled them. In job interviews they often ask you for specific situations where you exercised your leadership skills or things like that, and I always found it hard to name concrete examples, because, quite frankly, I hadn’t experienced many.

But right now I think I am starting to have a bit more focus. From the smooth Sunrise tofu (I think they are about $2.49 per pack) that I was, I am beginning to turn into some hot chocolate fudge brownie. Sexy.

I hope that with the power of the Lord Jesus Christ my Lord, I will soon turn into some hot sexy dark chocolate so I can actually maybe get married and have kids and all that jazz.

Lastly, an interesting thought came to me today as an inspecting dude came to my house to get an estimate for our insurance policy – unless I someday become some sort of a multi-millionaire, I will most probably never get to live in as nice of a house as I do right now. It’s true, ain’t it?

Not to say it’s “all downhill from here”, but certainly worth a thought, ain’t it? Such is the life of satellite kids. I PROMISE YOU, I will soon publish my post on my life struggles as a satellite kid (such as why I think blonde girls are always prettier than Chinese girls). But just give me some time.

Solution!

I think I might just have discovered the solution to my lifelong question of why I am always a bit indifferent to Hong Kong while I am here, but feel right at home and love the place when I am actually there.

It’s because of one very simple factor: I walk around in Hong Kong; I drive around in Vancouver.

Which also helps to explain why I have such fond memories of Halifax, but not so much of Vancouver.

Anyways, this epiphany occurred around 9PM tonight as I took a little stroll with my grandma after dinner, just around the neighborhood.

When you actually walk on your feet, you notice all sorts of things you don’t otherwise notice. The color of that new house; the nice car your neighbors drive; this pretty green lawn that orange house has, etc.

When you actually walk on your feet, you get much more “alone time” to think, especially thinking in blogmode. And when you take public transit, you get to observe a lot of people whom you’d otherwise just ignore.

What’s more, as me and my grandma were walking, this jogger jogged by – turns out she is a female friend of mine from high school who happens to live about a 3 minute walk away from my place.

My grandma was like “it’s rare to see such a decent looking girl” (I paraphrase).

LOL.